Recovery of solvents, such as lacquer thinner and acetone has been achieved in the past to allow the solvent to be used over and over again. Thus, certain economies can be realized because, instead of disposing of contaminated solvent, the solvent can be heated and reclaimed as clean solvent.
A solvent recovery system which has been known in the past is one entitled Electric Powered Acetone Recovery (EPAR I) manufactured and sold by Equipment Technologies, Inc., Neptune Beach, Fla. This system includes a heater in a housing for receiving contaminated acetone from a large drum separate from the housing. The acetone must be pumped into a solvent receiver in the housing, and when the receiver is sufficiently full, the acetone is heated in the receiver and solvent vapor is collected and condensed to form clean, liquid acetone. The clean acetone is then pumped into a second container separate from the housing in which the solvent is heated. This system is bulky and does not present a single station where articles can be cleaned with solvent and where solvent can be reclaimed for re-use.
Because of the foregoing problems and other problems associated with solvent recovery, a need has arisen for an improved solvent recovery apparatus and method which not only provides a work station where articles to be cleaned by solvent but also provides a station where solvent can be reclaimed for use over and over again and where residue from contaminated solvent can be easily removed.